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I hope I’m not the most instrumental person in a students life.

Ok, to be honest, I’d be honored to be that person – but by that statement I mean that if I am seeking to be that ‘one’ person in their life, I feel as if I may have failed at my job.  It’s not that I am attempting to be un-influential; but more to do with building a team of inspiration.

Team ministry is much more difficult, and I’m not quite sure I have even reached a point where I would feel comfortable saying I am there.  Most great leaders realize that they cannot be a great leader on their own, it takes a strong team of leaders together working for a common goal. My prayer for my ministry is that small group leaders and equipped parents are easily counted some of the most influential influences in the lives of the students who come through.  I hope to play  a part, but I’d be limiting my own ministry to try and be ‘the one’.

A daily prayer of mine is that I will have the humility and wisdom it takes to lead a team committed to Jesus and leading students to a closer walk with Him.  I guess time will tell.

If you live anywhere close to a college town – you know the fever that happens in the Fall.  This is my first football season living in Athens, and I’m already learning the ropes; don’t try to get downtown on a Saturday, don’t rely on the data service for my iPhone (I guess the towers overload), and you can get away with wearing pretty much anything you want as long as it’s red and black.  You can’t not like football in a town like Athens, where it is not uncommon to see grown men bark like dogs.

But something changes when the game starts.  Half of the fans turn into coaches. (The other half of us just have to listen to this mindless ‘coaching’)  What was once a rabid expression of fan-dom for one of the greatest schools in history (yes, I’m biased) is now a critique of every play and call.  I always love sitting next to the guy who is watching from home, but yells and screams as if he is on the sidelines and getting paid to be the head guy.

While football is not necessarily rocket science – it is absolutely not easy to be the coach on the field.  Most of us don’t realize how many things a college football coach has to be proficient at to do his job with excellence.  Instead, we seem to be happy with our own critiques.

It seems that we carry this same attitude to many other areas of life. I’ve been in ministry long enough to know that there will always be coaches in the stands at our churches.  It is an unfortunate reality. Many of us ‘coach’ from the stands, making clear what we would or would not do if we found ourselves in the same position.  In all reality, by critiquing we are often undermining the authority God has placed over us as well as helping strip that same authority from others lives.  We may not always agree with every ‘call’ or ‘decision’, but it is not our responsibility to make those calls or decisions. Submission to leadership doesn’t mean you can’t have an opinion, but it means that when it is all said and done with- the team (or in this case the kingdom) is much more important than my opinion.

So, slow down the coaching from the stands and start getting excited when you see victories and help rally when it seems like we’re behind.  The best thing we can do is to stop coaching from the stands and start getting in the game and making a difference.

I really haven’t made an intentional break from blogging, but I’ll admit it has been nice.  While I have never considered myself to be much of an expert – I have always enjoyed the process of blogging, helping me flesh out ideas and thoughts.  Nonetheless, it is quite possible I will pick back up my regular routine – but equally as plausible that I will simply enjoy ministry and family too much to invest too much time into updating.  Either way, here are a few words for tonight:

When you serve in ministry, you often hear people refer to what they do as ‘my’ ministry.  It’s not an incorrect form of ownership and responsibility; but I’ve become more and more disheartened by the lack of interest in doing what God has called us to do as pastors.  The very word itself is expressed with the intention of being ‘Shepherds”.  I haven’t known that many shepherds in my life, but I imagine it is not exactly how we like to picture them.

For some reason, many of us picture David sitting under a tree in a clean robe playing his harp with his hair flowing with the wind.  As I said, I haven’t been around too many shepherds, but I have seen sheep.  They are commonly referred to as dumb animals; but beyond their incompetence, they are also nasty.  Being a shepherd isn’t clean, neat and easy.  In fact, it seems quite the opposite.  Not only that, most shepherds are hired help — in other words, it’s not their sheep that they’re watching.

This may be why I have a distaste for the ownership in ministry.  It is quite an honor to be a pastor, but it is also easy to get lost in whom it is we are serving.  Typically speaking, our tendency is to either place ourselves or the ones we serve as the primary recipient of our interest.

It seems what we miss is that when God has called us into a vocational ministry to pastor, He has called us to HIS ministry.  It’s no longer “MY” anything, and it is certainly not someone else’s ministry.  Ultimately, my primary responsibility is not to my own idealism or innovation – but in my surrender to following through with WHATEVER God has asked of me.

This is something I am still learning, but I love that God is not through with me yet!  I can’t wait to see how He will teach me more about what it takes to surrender my goals to His own.

It wasn’t that long ago I can remember my excitement over Myspace.  Though it was short-lived, I remember loving the ability to connect and keep up with friends beyond email or any other type of correspondence.  By updating my page, I could inform many of my friends at the same time what was going on in my life too. Social networking had been around, but it was typically at a price and had many parameters that narrowed it’s ability to connect.  Myspace was free and untamed.

Not long after that day someone turned me on to facebook.  Almost immediately I stopped using my myspace (after finding many of those same friends over on facebook) except for people who weren’t in college (at the time facebook was for people with college emails only).  With myspace, you have the ability to over-customize your experience.  Every Myspace page looked different as people added their own designs.  The problem with such personalization is there seemed to be no uniformity in the mission and goal of myspace.  Almost as if myspace was simply a template in which you could create your own neck of the woods.

Facebook, on the other hand, is not as easily customizable.  There is one color scheme and basic layout.  You can change the info and data, but not the overall experience.  Even the ads seem to be more well placed, that you simply don’t mind them.  There are many reasons facebook has grown to be much larger than myspace, but I believe it’s clear uniformity in goals and purpose are a major part.

There are a lot of ministries that take both approaches, but in my opinion the ones that take the more ‘facebook’ approach tend to win out.  Simply handing out jobs is not delegation.  Trying to appease each individual person creates a spiritual mess and you don’t know what to expect from person to person.  In being effective in reaching others, we need to create a defined system or way of acting and reacting in our ministry.  In other words, the overall purpose and objectives are displayed in the very structure itself.  Sure each person is different, their likes and dislikes – but people will jump on board when they know what you’re about.

Handing pieces to different people not on board with the vision can ruin what you hope to accomplish.  Instead, delegate and distribute responsibility based upon an agreed upon set of values and goals — you’ll be better in the end for it.  After all, not many people miss myspace.

Shaun King hit the nail on the head with this post about how Money Doesn’t Produce Passion. Some of the worst things you can do is have people on your team who are there for a paycheck. There is absolutely nothing wrong with people getting paid, or being a blessing to someone who is committed – but you’ve got to beware of making sure your team is involved because of their passion for ministry above a buck.

Here’s a little of what Shaun says:

• If people were not really passionate about God or the church you lead before you started paying them, they won’t grow one single ounce of passion about God or the church you lead because you pay them.

• If people were really passionate about God or the church you lead before you started paying them, paying them does not mean that this passion will be magically sustained or revived with each paycheck they receive.

Every pastor and leader is on the lookout for the next silver bullet.  Something that will revolutionize his ministry, double his attendance, and increase the number of volunteers.  Whether its conferences or going as far as to emulate other pastors down to the way they dress – leaders will do anything to find the magic fix.  The bad news is, there is no silver bullet.

While there are still a few guys wearing Hawaiian shirts out there (surprisingly), you have to personalize your ministry.  In reality, it’s not methods that change lives – it’s the Gospel that changes lives.  Your methods need to mirror your community, and they may often mirror other churches – but don’t look for the silver bullet because it doesn’t exist.  Instead, look for a way for your church to reach your community the best way possible.  You will most likely try and fail more than once before getting it right, but keep placing Jesus in the front of everything you do.  Only He can change lives.

I’m always impressed by snipers.  They have honed their craft so tightly; that even on an ocean wave they are able to pick off a few pirates before they even knew what hit them.  A sniper is a sharp shooter.  He spends the majority of his time practicing over and over that one shot – so when it counts, he doesn’t miss.

On the other hand, have you ever shot a shotgun?  There is definitely some skill involved, but not near as much.  A shotgun is a great gun for close range, but if you’re looking to hit a target further than a few feet away you may want something else (ok, some shotguns are better than others, but roll with me).

Why do we so often in ministry use a shotgun when we should be pulling out our snipers?  In other words, we try to do so much and only braze the target – when we should be knocking it down.  It’s easy to get caught up in programs, buildings and so many other things that are ‘good’ – but keep us from being effective.  Often shotgun users are the ones trying to please people, instead of keeping the ministry on task.  They often worry about what has always been done – rather than evaluate the effectiveness of a ministry.  A shotgun user can’t see beyond a few feet in front of him – whereas a sniper can see the big picture down the road that God has planned.

There is a HUGE difference between good and great – and I believe we need to stop trying to do a little bit of everything good, and start doing a few things great.  And hey, a sniper at close range is still pretty deadly.